27 April 2012

The Cabin in the Woods

In The Cabin in the Woods, writer-director Drew Goddard and writer-producer Joss Whedon unpack, then dismantle, and finally unbind the horror movie, liberating all its archetypes from the punishing confines (and confining punishments!) of the genre. It's not unlike Funny Games in that it strips the characters of their characterhood, eventually making them instead more like real people battling against imposed archetypes; thus, the filmmakers burden the audience with a greater moral responsibility for the violence done to them. People disdain Michael Haneke for that movie's lecturing; Goddard and Whedon get away with it here because they're careful not to wag their fingers, even though they prove strong critics of genre and viewer. Instead, they laugh a lot—not at horror's clichés but with them, all while remaining aware of their problematic subtexts.